Bridge 4: Research and Develop – Barbara Friedman

The words we picked out randomly were candy, string, styrofoam, and feathers. Out of these 4 words, we decided to use candy and string. With these objects in mind, all of us went home and came back with ideas sketched.

My first sketch ideas:

I wanted the piece to have a change during our making or presenting. So, I thought of possible candies that could be performative and came up with ideas of how to use them. Our group liked the idea of the cotton candy and based off of that we thought of the possible use of this piece. In the beginning, my group was focusing more on the aesthetic side, but I wanted to give a purpose to it. We were talking about how this would attract rats or insects and thought in what situation people would want to attract insects. The idea of a lepidopterogist (butterfly scientist) or melittologist (bee scientist) being able to use this to study or migrate big numbers of butterflies, bees or even hummingbirds from one place to another came up and we based the next sketch based on that.

The final sketch with the focus on this specific purpose came out like so:

With this idea, we had a purpose, aesthetic way to present and a performative side.

We made a vest with cotton candy on the top and bottom put in place with strings and had pockets with airheads for more access to sugar or attraction for the bees or butterflies. Also, the neck piece was detachable making the outfit refillable and thus, reusable.

Model wearing:

While presenting, I sprayed the cotton candy with water infused with lavender extract which is a scent the insects are attracted to.